Trumpeter Dave Douglas, who launched his own Greenleaf Music imprint in 2004, will release, on Nov. 22, a limited-edition, three-volume boxed set titled Three Views, as part of the label’s Greenleaf Portable Series. Launched in June 2011, the series digitally delivers new music composed and arranged by Douglas and performed with a cross-section of musicians, including Douglas’ Brass Ecstasy, a quintet featuring Ravi Coltrane on tenor saxophone and pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Marcus Gilmore, as well as the new music ensemble So Percussion.
For Volume 1, Rare Metals, Douglas convened his newest band, Brass Ecstasy for recording five new compositions and an arrangement of the classic Strayhorn tune “Lush Life.” Following Volume 1, Douglas invited Coltrane, Iyer, Oh and Gilmore to play new music. For the final GPS release of 2011, Bad Mango, the quartet So Percussion joined Douglas in the studio to play new compositions alongside works from Douglas’ album Witness and from his early 1990s band Tiny Bell Trio. Douglas is accompanied by marimba, musical saw, glockenspiel, and many non-traditional percussion instruments.
Douglas unveiled the GPS via a newly developed website optimized for mobile platforms, a cloud player that gives instant access to Greenleaf’s growing catalog, as well as an upcoming free app for the iPhone and iPad.
In addition to developing new distribution methods, Douglas is exploring creative avenues that might present themselves as a result of the new format. The Greenleaf Portable Series is the first result: shorter sessions, recorded in a day, presented more quickly to the market without the delays of putting out a CD.
Greenleaf is offering the limited-edition boxed set version of the first three volumes of GPS as Three Views.
Douglas will perform with all three groups from the first three volumes of GPS, plus a new band on opening night, from December 8-11 at Jazz Standard in New York City:
Dec 8-Key Motion Quintet
with Douglas, Donny McCaslin, Adam Benjamin, Tim Lefebvre, Mark Guiliana playing music from Douglas’ Keystone and McCaslin’s Perpetual Motion album
Dec 9-Dave Douglas with So Percussion
Dec 10-Douglas with Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Linda Oh, EJ Strickland
Dec 11-Douglas and Brass Ecstasy
with Luis Bonilla, Vincent Chancey, Marcus Rojas and Rudy Royston
